By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

PARLIAMENTARY Commissioner Sherlyn Hall yesterday pledged that his department “has the ability” to produce a clean voter’s register, but said that can only happen if Bahamians do not “contaminate” it by registering more than once.

Mr Hall said that the honest “participation of all citizens” would be the determining factor in the department’s production of a clean register, adding that things would go a lot smoother if people “tell us the truth” about their registration history.

Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis also weighed in on the matter yesterday, and called on Bahamians to “assist” Mr Hall in producing a clean register, saying, “the correctness of the register is not the sole responsibility of the parliamentary commissioner or his offices.”

Mr Davis, while a guest on talk show “Darold Miller Live” with host Darold Miller, said while the “buck stops” with the Parliamentary Registration Department, the participants in the electoral process have a duty to assist officials in having the correct register.

Mr Hall was responding to The Tribune’s questions over issues raised by Free National Movement Leader Dr Hubert Minnis over the weekend, when Dr Minnis said he is “doubtful” that the Christie administration could produce a “clean” register before the electorate heads to the polls.

Last Thursday, FNM Chairman Sidney Collie also raised “grave concerns” regarding the election register, pointing to the discovery of 72 pages of duplicate registrations, names printed of persons born over 200 years ago and some who were born in 2017.

Mr Collie described this as “negligence” and “ineptitude”, saying there are other “irregularities” that have come to light pointing to persons who were reportedly issued citizenship and voter’s cards on the same day.

In response, however, Mr Hall said “the register is only as clean as the cooperation we receive from the voters.”

“The clean register depends on the participation of all citizens,” Mr Hall said when questioned in the matter. “If citizens come and tell us whether you registered before or not, that helps us keep a clean register. Once we pick them up we’ll do our best to delete their names off the register. Because each voter is entitled to have one voter’s card. So if a person registered before and they do not tell us the truth, you contaminate the register.

“We (at the department) have the ability, sir. We’ve always had challenges in previous elections. The former prime minister said it correctly. Going way back to 2002, 2007, 2012, we’ve always had challenges. It’s a manual system, and people will not always speak the truth,” Mr Hall continued.

Meanwhile, Mr Davis said Bahamians should “appreciate” the fact that “we have humans dealing with the register.”

“We are prone to make mistakes,” Mr Davis added. “The correctness of the register is not the sole responsibility of the parliamentary commissioner or his office.

“Yes at the end of the day the buck stops with them, but we who are participants in the electoral process have a duty as well to assist in them having the correct register.”

Mr Davis used the example of somebody registering in Cat Island, subsequently moving to San Salvador, forgetting that they registered in Cat Island and consequently “registered again to their own misunderstanding.”

“I could bring that to the attention of (Mr Hall) and say ‘X’ person registered and they misunderstood and registered again in San Salvador,” he said. “I bring that to the attention of the commissioner and then he could eliminate one. So we do have that responsibility.”

Voter registration for the impending election officially ended at 5pm yesterday.

Mr Hall and his department now have 14 to 15 days to clean up the hundreds of reported errors presently on the register. There were currently around 167,000 voters on the register as of the weekend and to date Prime Minister Perry Christie has not announced the date when Bahamians can expect to head to the polls.